Best Summer Broccoli Salad

Best broccoli salad

Confession: I tend to hibernate in the winter. I’m not sure how Canadian this is for me to say, but I’m 100% not a fan of winter. I’m going to pin that to my Oklahoma roots. There’s not much of a winter season in Oklahoma. I tend to make like a bear and hibernate all winter here in Canada. So, when summer finally comes here in Canada, I make up for lost time spent hibernating and go to every little gathering I can. Going to so many BBQ’s and picnics means that I have to have a lot of really quick and tasty side dish recipes to bring with me. This easy broccoli salad is perfect for that.

This crunchy broccoli salad is not only easy to throw together, but it’s also got bacon. Like, a lot of bacon. I mean it’s also got onions, raisins, and sunflower seeds. But I probably sold you on bacon. The dressing is a light mayo-based dressing. It’s made from scratch, but don’t let that scare you. The broccoli salad dressing is 3 simple ingredients mixed together.

My favourite thing about this salad is that you can make it ahead of time. Prep the broccoli, onion, raisins, bacon, and sunflower seeds in one airtight container, and the simple broccoli salad dressing in another. Then, when you are ready to eat it, simply mix the two together. This makes it such a quick healthy lunch option too.

I can’t take credit for this recipe though. I want to be honest with you and say this is 100% my mother-in-law’s recipe. I should really add her to the blog before someone convinces her to start her own food blog. But anyways, this bacon broccoli salad (might just call it that for now on) is a family favourite. It’s served at almost every family functions. It’s probably safe to say that this broccoli salad has become the Monster family function dish.

Tips for Making Cold Broccoli Salad:

While this is a simple broccoli salad recipe, there are a couple of things you can do to make sure that you make the best broccoli salad every time.

Use fresh broccoli

Use real bacon

Use red onion for a more subtle onion flavour)

Keep everything cold

Don’t dress the salad until you’re ready to eat it

Don’t keep the broccoli salad dressed for more than 24 hours

Keep in an airtight container

For this recipe, you might need:

Best Broccoli Salad Recipe:

Ingredients:

3 heads of fresh broccoli

1 cup of raisins

1/4 cup of diced red onion

1 cup of sunflower seeds (salted or unsalted is fine)

10 strips of bacon cooked crispy and diced small

4 TBS of sugar

1/2 cup of light mayo

1 TBSP of vinegar

How To Make The Broccoli Salad:

First, cut the broccoli into small bite-size pieces.

Add the raisins, diced onion, sunflower seeds, and bacon pieces to the bowl of broccoli. Mix well and set aside.

In a separate bowl whisk together the mayo, sugar, and vinegar until it is well combined and smooth.

Add the dressing to the broccoli salad and mix until it’s well combined.

Store covered in the fridge until your ready to eat. Like I said above, you can make the salad and dressing up to 24-hours ahead of time. Add the dressing to the broccoli salad when you’re ready to serve. You can store it mixed together for 24-hours in the fridge.

Let me know if you’re going to give the summer salad a try in the comments below.